AUTHOR'S NOTE

But first, a disclaimer:

If anything, this is fan fiction with most of the characters borrowed from Yu-Gi-Oh! All of those characters are the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi. But everyone else is mine and no one can take them away from me!

Now to the note:

            Kudos, Shakespeare – you wrote 37 plays.

            Unfortunately, this last one kind of sucks.

            Oh, it's great, but time and place aren't well defined in this play. Sometime in between Act Two and Act Three, for example, we have Macbeth in Dunsinane all of a sudden. However, Banquo is still hanging around like he's some kind of kinky roommate. But he's had time to think because he's come to the conclusion that Macbeth must've killed Duncan, so now he's a SUSPICIOUS kinky roommate.

            I didn't like this. Using artistic license as my defense, I set the first scene of Act Three at Scone and tried to tidy up all the loose ends from there. That makes Yami Yuugi, my Banquo, a little quicker on the uptake and less of a leech.

            But that's just one of the changes. I've done all sorts of things – distort space and time, paraphrase like crazy, move things around, and get rid of things/people. I hope the reader will forgive me, because I've got a reason: no one thinks like Shakespeare anymore. I'm not sure anyone even thought like that in his day.

            Last note: Macbeth reigned from 1040 to 1057 – that's seventeen years. That's long enough to become a tyrant. But old Willie was rushed, so he made the whole affair happen in, like, days. I tried to rectify this but I didn't do a very good job. I'm sorry.

Have fun reading anyway.

*****

THE STORY

The witches finished their casting.

"Ooh! That was fun!" Serenity said. "Let's do that again!"

Ishizu held her hand to her necklace. "We shall when the hurly-burly's done, when the battle's last and won."

"That'll be at the end of the day," Téa said. She bent to pick up the cauldron. For all its wrought iron, it was surprisingly light.

Serenity knelt to help her pick up some of the ingredients they'd used – a withered hand, a rat's tail. "Where will we meet next time?"

"Upon the heath," Ishizu said.

Téa stood. "We're going to meet Kaiba."

"Oh!" Serenity said. She started. "Ah! Coming, kitty! I mean, Graymalkin!"

Once again, Ishizu held her necklace. "Paddock calls!"

Téa stepped forward with her cauldron. "I'm coming!"

"Fair is foul and foul is fair," they chanted. "Hover through the fog and filthy air!"

Ishizu, Téa, and Serenity walked into the haze, which was quickly melted by the sun.

*****

There would be battle on the moors of Scotland. Norwegians and Scots fell alike – death does not play favorites. It did, however, allow a heavily wounded captain to race behind the ever less tumultuous battlefield and bring news of the struggle to the king.

King Gozaburo and his sons, Bakura and Noah, had regrouped. Their horses were tied to a band of trees nearby. With them were Tristan and a couple of attendants. Gozaburo spotted the captain, who sighed with relief upon finding them, and asked, "Who is that? He comes from the battle."

"He's a sergeant on our side," Bakura answered. "Cheerio, there!" he said as he waved to the approaching soldier. "What knowledge do you have of the battle as you left it?"

The captain wiped his crimson face with a bloody cloth before sitting at attention on his weary horse. "It was a stalemate. Halfway into the battle, Macdonwald – the epitome of evil! – received reinforcements from Hebrides, and it seemed like fate was on his side. But then Kaiba – and he deserves that name – appeared. His sword seemed to be smoking – it had carved a path out of Macdonwald's men – and with it, Kaiba drew and quartered him, and put his head on a spike."

Gozaburo nodded. "Impressive."

The captain licked his dry lips and continued. "But just as the Irish mercenaries had decided to run, the Norwegian king saw his chance and began a fresh attack with new men."

The king leaned forward. "Seto and Yuugi – what did they do?"

"They redoubled their attacks," the soldier said as he shifted his position and winced. "I can't tell if they were trying to flood the battlefield with blood, or – ah!" He clenched his side.

Gozaburo sat back. "Your words and wounds give you glory." He snapped his fingers at his attendants. "You, find someone to help him!" He turned to watch them leave, but his attention was drawn to Inogashira and another thane approach. "Who is this?" he asked of the latter as he got off his horse.

Again, Bakura answered: "It's Daemon, Thane of Ross, Father."

"God save the king," Daemon said with a bow.

"Where did you come from?" Gozaburo said.

"Fife, my king," Daemon said as he stood, "where the Norwegian flag waved against us. However, more important is the Thane of Cawdor's treason. When Norway attacked, he joined them. But our fierce men matched their power, and we won against their king and our thane."

"Congratulations," Gozaburo acknowledged.

"King Sweno asked for terms," Daemon added, "but we wouldn't even allow him to bury his men until he had paid reparations of ten thousand dollars at Saint Colme's Inch."

"The Thane of Cawdor will not do this again," Gozaburo decided. "Announce his death, and give his title to Seto."

Daemon bowed before mounting his horse. "It shall be done, my liege."

Gozaburo mounted his horse as well. His sons followed suit. "What he hath lost, noble Seto hath won," the king remarked.

*****

Lightning flashed. Thunder rolled.

It landed a six.

Frightened, Serenity clutched her familiar. It mewed impatiently.

Suddenly, there was a displacement of air. Serenity breathed a sigh of relief. "Téa, where have you been?"

"Killing pigs," she said offhandedly. She looked around. "Where's Ishizu? Are we early?"

"Here I am!" Ishizu called from by a tree. When her witch companions had neared, she asked Serenity: "What have thee been doing? Thy familiar's anxious."

Serenity related her tale eagerly – being a witch was still new to her. "I asked a scabby lady for some of her the chestnuts she was eating, but she wouldn't give me any, so I'm going to sail in a sieve to wreck her husband's ship."

Ishizu nodded. "I'll give thee wind."

"Thanks, Ishizu!" Serenity said happily.

"I will, too," Téa said.

Serenity nodded determinedly. "And I'll have the others, and their ports, and their directions. That lady's husband will be cursed, so that he can't sleep. And his ship will ride terrible storms!" Serenity took a sharp breath, like she'd remembered something. She drew a severed finger from her robes. "Oh, and look what I've got! It's the thumb of a helmsman who also came home cursed."

Téa picked up the thing with her index finger and thumb. "Cool!"

"Hark!" Ishizu said in response to a signal only she heard. "A drum, a drum! Kaiba doth come!"

The three witches watched Seto and Yami Yuugi patiently. Their path would take them by the tree.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen, Seto thought.

"How far is it to Forres?" Yami Yuugi called ahead to Seto. Then the witches caught his eye. "What are these? So wild and withered in their appearance, they don't look like anything alive, but are here on earth." He brought his horse to a trot and stopped before Serenity. "Well?" he prompted for an answer. "You understand me with a finger to your lips. What are you?"

Seto brought his horse around to join Yami Yuugi's. "Speak if you can! Answer him."

Serenity stood up to him, and her voice rang clearly. "All hail Kaiba! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!"

Téa stood beside her. "All hail Kaiba!" she echoed. "Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!"

"All hail Kaiba!" Ishizu echoed from by the tree. "You shalt be king hereafter!"

Seto gasped. He involuntarily jerked his horse's rein, causing it to start and neigh.

Yami Yuugi looked at Seto curiously. "Kaiba, what was that? They predict great things." He returned his attention to the youngest witch. "Are you real? My partner you greet with good prophecies, rendering him speechless. To me, you speak not. If you can see into the seeds of time, speak then, to me. I am not afraid."

"Hail!" the witches cried in unison. Yami Yuugi's horse started, but he quckly brought it under control.

"Lesser than Kaiba and greater," Serenity said.

"Not as lucky, but chosen by fate," Téa said.

"Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none," Ishizu said. "So all hail Kaiba and Yami!"

At the second iteration of his name, Seto came to life. "Talk straight," he growled. "Tell me more. My father's dead, so I've Glamis, but the Thane of Cawdor still lives. Even less believable is your prophecy that I'll be king." He brought his horse forward and around, so that he looked down on the witches. "Tell me how you now this, or why are you telling us this at all." When they did not respond, he barked: "Talk!"

Ishizu and Téa, then Serenity, threw silvery fine dust into the air. Before it had finished falling, they had vanished. Air rushed in to replace their missing corporal forms with small pff's. The whole trick scared the two horses and rather than force them to stay, Seto and Yami Yuugi continued on their way. "Those women are bubbles of the earth," Yami Yuugi commented. "I wonder where they went."

"Into the air." Seto chuffed, vexed. "They should've stayed."

Yami Yuugi tightened his grip on the reins. "Did the things we are talking about really happen?" he asked softly. "Or have we swallowed some poisonous root that takes away your sanity?"

"Your children shall be king," Seto repreated.

"You shall be king," Yami returned.

"And Thane of Cawdor," Seto whispered to himself. "That was what they said."

The rattling and jangling of approaching horse equipment shook the two out of their reverie. "Who is this?" Yami Yuugi asked.

Daemon and Inogashira slowed their horses to match Seto's and Yami Yuugi's. Daemon waved an arm in greeting. "Kaiba! Gozaburo has heard of your success, and his speechless wonder vied with his desire to offer praise. While he was silenced, messenger after messenger arrived with your praises."

"But we were sent not to pay you, but to present you to Gozaburo," Inogashira added.

"As a promise of greater reward," Daemon said, "Gozaburo asks that I call you Cawdor's lord. So hail, Thane of Cawdor, for that title is yours."

Yami Yuugi gasped. "What? Is this true?"

"The Thane of Cawdor still lives," Seto murmured. Louder, he asked Daemon: "Why do you call me by someone else's name?"

"The old thane's alive, yes, but it was ruled that he should die," Inogashira said. "Whether he was involved in a conspiracy with Norway or with MacDonwald, I don't know, but his treasons ratted him out."

Glamis and Cawdor! Seto thought. That's already two out of three. He drew his horse beside Yami's. "Yuugi – the promise to me was kept. Do you have hope for your children?"

Yami Yuugi studied him. "The throne was also promised to you," he said quietly. "But it is strange. Our downfalls are often preceded by seductive truths." He looked apologetically at Daemon and Inogashira. "Excuse us a word, friends," he said as he pulled his horse back.

Seto followed suit. He hissed dissent: "Yuugi, these two truths will be prologues to great things, not our downfall." Rejoining Daemon and Inogashira, he said: "Thank you, gentlemen."

But his mind had far from returned. This can't be good or bad, Seto thought. Nothing evil begins with truth – I am Thane of Cawdor. But nothing good raises panic like it does now. Unbeknownst to him, Seto was letting his horse slow dramatically while he mused. I should forget this. Invented horrors are worse than real fears… But my thoughts keep me from acting – I can only imagine and invent, and nothing is but what is not!

Yami Yuugi observed Seto's agitation and explained to Daemon an Inogashira: Look, the newly named Thane of Cawdor is speechless."

This time, the mention of his name failed to reel Seto to reality. His thoughts continued rambling. If fate has decided I'll be king, then maybe it'll happen without my doing…

Yami Yuugi chuckled nervously. "He's still not in the habit of answering to his new title, I'm afraid." He slipped Seto a

worried glance as he slowed his horse. "I'm sure he'll get used to it in time."

Meanwhile, Seto sought to reassure himself with nature's predictability. If worse comes to worse, whatever happens, time will continue to run.

"Kaiba," Yuugi called back. "We stay upon your leisure."

"Huh?" Seto looked up. His horse was lagging far behind the others. Daemon and Inogashira were giving him curious glances, and a little behind them, Yami Yuugi had a worried look on his face. "Ha!" Seto grunted as he squeezed his horse's sides, prompting it to speed up. "I apologize," he said to the thanes as he drew near Yuugi. "I was just thinking. But now, let's move." He whispered to Yami Yuugi: "But think about what's happened. We'll talk later." When Yami Yuugi nodded, Seto further sped up until he passed Daemon and Inogashira. "Come on," he dared them. "Gozaburo's waiting."